Refer to Notes

I got home last night and drew out the course we had from Gidget's class and jotted down a few notes of what we worked on.  We work on so many things in the intermediate agility class, and a lot of it is specific to an individual team, so I think I need to start taking a notebook to class to write down our specific issues and what we did to work on them. 

I like rear crosses and I have a tendency to use them more than needed.  I used a rear cross between jump 6 and the tunnel when a front cross ended up being much smoother.  Front crosses are a little more difficult for me yet, and I just don't see where they would work better for me.  This is the third class recently where I've been told that I really ought to use a front cross when I tried a rear cross.  In these situations I'm just faster than Gidget and can get ahead of her for a front cross.  I don't realize this in course walk throughs and plan on a rear cross.  I end up having to slow down, which in turn slows Gidget down.  The front cross ends up being a faster, tighter turn... if I do it right.  Mostly I just have to remember to signal the front cross early enough, get that opposite hand up as soon as Gidget is committed to the jump.

One spot where a front cross was kind of fun was between the tire (black 8, red numbers were a second ending to the course) and jump 9.  As I learned in Gracie's class on Wed. the key to this is to face the dogs path and to not back up.  So I sent Gidget to the tunnel, got in position in front of the tire while facing the path between the tunnel and the tire, cued the jump and continued on.  It worked really well the very first time we tried.  To improve, I would have walked this option more (I wasn't planning on doing a front cross originally and only walked it once, but changed my mind after seeing my classmates run the course).  Landmarks are really handy for front crosses, things you can see so you can position yourself the same way consistently.  I probably would have chosen the far side of the tire and something on the dog walk or wall.

The last thing we worked on was a bit of layering, at least I think that term applies here, I haven't worked on that skill enough to know for sure.  Anyways, we worked on going from the tunnel to the weaves (7 to red 8).  When we'd run the full course earlier, all but one person went to meet their dog at the end of the tunnel and run on the same side of the tire as the dog to the weaves.  That one person saved herself some time by running from the tunnel entrance to the weaves while staying on the opposite side of the tire from her dog.  The dog may need an out cue to stay away from the tire and enter the weaves at an easier angle, but if you're converging (which pushes your dogs path away from you) and your dog has a good weave entry, the dog should skip the tire and find the weaves with little difficulty.  At least Gidget and I had no trouble!  Most of those that did have issues either got too far ahead of their dog or their body position was off just enough to suggest that the dog should take the tire.

It was a fun class with a slightly smaller group than normal.  Gidget had had a long day (she went to work with me so she could get a VOM treatment - post for another day) and was calmer than normal which made getting her focused on that first run was much easier than normal too.  Happy agility!